Digital Storytelling: A Futuristic Second-Language-Writing Method

Introduction

Stories are the framework through which people understand and interpret the world since it is the power of stories that makes us human. The power of stories has a magical empathic impact on people’s judgment capability as stories provide people the formulation to open up a world of possibilities for rethinking, considering and reevaluating life experiences through literacy. Human beings are constant storytellers to make sense of the world we live in and to view the events through the characters that live in stories. No matter who you are and no matter what you do, you have heard a multitude of stories in your lifetime: at bedtime from your loved-ones, at a dinner table with your family, through the media on radio, television or internet and with your colleagues at lunch. Storytelling has long been used as a powerful tool for communication.

“Perhaps not surprisingly, stories are also the oldest form of education” (Reinders, 2011, p. 1); and it is crucial to include storytelling as a critical part of the second language writing curriculum in order to teach empathy as one of the most required skills in the 21^st century. Empathy, whether through paper and pen or through super advanced digital tools, is the most powerful skill to be acquired in the 21^st century for a brighter future.

Empathy is a quality of wisdom. Empathy is what human beings require to become kinder to Earth and to every living being on Earth. Empathy is far beyond living for your selfish self. Empathy is the will to be part of a harmonious planet by accepting the fact that your endless freedom should be restricted once it interferes with the freedom of another living being. Empathy equals to respect. Recent educational systems embrace creativity, collaboration and communication as critical skills to be acquired. It is indeed empathy that is missing from educational settings, which is absolutely required to motivate global citizens, who would live in harmony around the world. Global awareness does not necessarily mean the capacity to reach out to technologically derived sources from all over the world, but it rather refers to actions of using these tools to understand the self as well as the others (Morra, 2014). Therefore, teaching empathy through digital storytelling to second language learners is one of the new and innovative forms of language education.

Digital storytelling is indeed a great source for teaching empathy to second language learners in creative methods. With digital storytelling, language learners have the opportunity to be more interactive, flexible and synchronic for the creation of knowledge both individually and collaboratively in a technology-mediated learning environment. This novel process draws the attention to the fact that language learners take multifarious roles for being the creator of the digital context, a recorder, a word processor, a critical reflector, a visual designer or a digital story presenter. For this purpose, teaching second language writing through digital stories leads to a futuristic teaching style for using the writing discipline to teach empathy in inventive ways to second language learners and writers. Taking such creative and critical roles to develop language learners’ knowledge and skills through the digital storytelling pedagogy is a quite productive language teaching method. Thus, the futuristic approach of this chapter targets to guide creative writing practices through digital storytelling as a process for teachers, writing specialists, educators, instructors and professionals, who wish to facilitate effective and novel writing strategies for second language learners and writers.

The Significance Of Storytelling In Language Education